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18 May 2011 22:59

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Tech: Cloud music horse race: Apple’s about to pull ahead quickly

  • Amazon Launched their cloud service first — without any deals with the major record labels. So while you could upload your music, you can’t stream the labels’ tunes.
  • Google Launched their cloud service a little while after Amazon — with an interface that looks nearly the same. They weren’t able to cull deals out of the labels, either.
  • Apple They’ll be late to the game, but they have two of the four majors on board, with the other two close to signing. Apple bought the lamented Lala in late 2009. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 22:53

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Politics: Grassley pokes fun at Daniels’ lack of charisma

  • Maybe I oughta back [Mitch Daniels], because it would be an opportunity to show that people who don’t have charisma could be elected president.
  • Republican Senator Charles Grassley • About…well, Mitch Daniels. Aren’t these guys supposed to be on the same team? He went on to compliment Daniels’ performance as George W. Bush’s budget director (because if there’s anything Bush did well, it was handle the federal budget). source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 21:58

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U.S.: Obama’s focus tomorrow: The quickly-changing Middle East

  • Obama’s giving a big speech tomorrow. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading to town to discuss the long-gestating peace deal with Palestine, Obama will give a speech from the State Department intended for both the American public and the Middle East. There’s speculation that he may push for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation … or more surprisingly, endorse pushing back Israel’s borders to pre-1967 levels as a starting point in negotiations between Israel and Palestine. What’s he gonna say? One thing that’s pretty clear at this point is that Egypt’s getting some aid money — roughly $2 billion, to be exact — possibly as an anchor to encourage support of Israel. All in all, fun day ahead. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 21:34

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Politics: Dark horse alert: Rick Perry may run for president

  • Late registration: The reporting is a bit muddled and inconclusive, but it looks like Texas Governor Rick Perry may be testing the waters for a presidential run. Jumping into the race this late in the game would require a lot of catch up, and Perry’s past flirtations with secession could pose a problem for him as a presidential candidate. Nevertheless, if he did enter the race, he would have a very solid chance of getting the nomination–and, in our opinion, a reasonable shot at defeating Obama in 2012. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 21:09

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Culture: Arnold Schwarzenegger had two kids by two women in one week

  • 09/27/97 the birthdate of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s youngest son with wife Maria Shriver
  • 10/02/97 the birthdate of Arnold’s son with his former housemaid; her husband left her three weeks later source
  • » This makes things even more awkward: According to birth records released regarding Mildred Patricia Baena’s child with the former governor, he was born less than a week after Maria Shriver had a child of her own. The actor has supported the child since his birth. The superstar actor, who is taking this hard, “is doing everything he can to take full responsibility to take all of the spotlight off his children and wife,” according to a CNN source close to Schwarzenegger. Still though, it’s kinda tough to do so with this kind of scandal. This is pretty weird, right?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 19:05

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Tech: NYT’s Nick Bilton, Bill Keller get into it over Twitter

  • Could Twitter make me stupid? Absolutely. If I only followed funny cats that speak with poor grammar, I’d be on my way to a vapid state of mind in no time. But I don’t. I follow dozens of news outlets and writers; I follow chefs, neuroscientists and the president of the United States; and of course, I follow Mr. Keller.
  • NYT blogger Nick Bilton • Publicly taking his boss, Bill Keller, to task about his Twitter-bashing column earlier today, where he suggested allowing his daughter to use Facebook was like giving her crystal meth. Keller got a chance to respond in an update at the end of Bilton’s piece, where he tried to clarify what he was going for (as well as jokingly threatening to fire his talented blogger). “If Facebook is displacing real friendship, if Twitter is diminishing actual conversation,” he says, “then maybe that’s a good reason to limit how much of your life they consume.” You know, here’s the funny thing about Facebook and Twitter: For the people in your social circle, you can turn the service off and contact many of the people you’re talking to on Facebook and Twitter in the flesh. And the people you can’t, you can reach via the service. These services don’t take away from our knowledge. They expand our reach, as long as they’re not used to excess (a point both Bilton and Keller agree on). Bill just doesn’t explain this point very well at all. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 17:35

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Politics: Kirk Cameron feels disadvantaged against Stephen Hawking

  • “Like bullying a blind man”: That was what former sitcom actor and adamant Christian activist Kirk Cameron complained it was like to say anything negative about Stephen Hawking. “He has an unfair disadvantage, and that gives him a free pass on some of his absurd ideas.” It’s a crass and lowly insult to Hawking to suggest that he’s the benefit of an “unfair disadvantage,” which clearly refers to his ALS. Especially because it implies that he’s the beneficiary of some sort of sympathy within the scientific community, as opposed to what he is; the owner of a magnificent mind that’s he’s used to bettering humankind. Whatever you might say about Growing Pains, we reckon that contribution doesn’t measure up. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

18 May 2011 16:58

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Politics: GOP braces for damage from Gingrich remarks

  • Newt tries to stop the bleeding: There’s a problem that Newt Gingrich created in his criticisms of the Paul Ryan budget that goes very far beyond Newt himself — a rapidly approaching torrent of Democratic ads using his words against any Republican opponent who supported or voted for said budget. This stern denouncement is an attempt to blunt that effect, but will it work? Not on Senator Chuck Schumer, at least: “What Newt seems to realize is that it would be impossible to win the White House if they embrace the Ryan plan. If Republicans make endorsing the Ryan plan the standard in the Republican primary, it will make the nominee unelectable.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 16:32

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Politics: Newt Gingrich, Beverly Hills Housewife

  • Everything about Newt Gingrich–the operatic temperament, the multiple divorces, the six-figure credit line at Tiffany’s, the ego, the solipsism, the sheer haplessness and capacity for self-delusion–it all summons up the ‘Real House Wives of Beverly Hills.’
  • TNR’s Johnathan Cohn • It may sound like a pithy, superficial comparison, but Cohn backs up his argument effectively: “They’re all aging, camera-hungry divas who used to be something that they can’t seem to let go of…they remain the stars of their own universe, blind to the indifference of the world around them…They’re always causing scenes, having fights, and then apologizing to their “frenemies” but not really meaning it.” Sounds spot-on to us. We’d add one more: Like Gingrich, the Housewives are highly entertaining to watch, but ultimately irrelevant in the 2012 presidential election.   source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 16:14

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World: A little good news coming out of Tripoli

  • 4 journalists freed from their detention by Gaddafi’s military source
  • » At long last: Gaddafi’s authorities have set Nigel Chandler, Manu Brabo, Claire Gillis and James Foley free — and authorities said that they may stay in the country if they wish (though journalistic professionalism aside, one could understand if they didn’t especially want to). Brabo, Gillis and Foley were all captured near Brega on April 5th. As for Chandler, however, who Libyan authorities believed worked with the BBC (they have since said they have no journalist in their employ by that name, and no other organization has claimed him), no location of his detainment is yet known. The four are now under consular care of Tripoli’s South African embassy.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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